NATO leaders meet Wednesday for their 75th anniversary, seeking ways to ramp up support for Ukraine as deadly Russian strikes and political uncertainties in the West stir new concerns.
With the pomp of a summit in Washington, President Joe Biden is aiming to rally the West and also reassure US voters amid intense pre-election scrutiny on whether at 81 -- six years older than the alliance -- he remains fit for the job.
Kicking off three days of events for the 32-nation alliance with a celebration Tuesday evening, Biden announced a new air defense system for Kyiv and urged unity against Russian President Vladimir Putin, who launched the Ukraine invasion in 2022.
"Make no mistake. Ukraine can -- and will -- stop Putin," Biden said forcefully to applause.
On the eve of the summit, Russia fired a barrage of missiles on Ukraine, killing dozens, including in Kyiv where a children's hospital was reduced to debris.
Biden has invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the summit as well as the leaders of four key Pacific partners -- Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand -- as he seeks to increase NATO's role in managing a rising China.
But the US president himself is facing a tough election challenge from Donald Trump, who has loudly questioned the utility of NATO and mused on forcing a peace deal in which Ukraine would surrender land to Russia.
- 'Greatest risk' -
Zelensky in Washington thanked Ukraine's backers for the promise of new air defenses -- and urged the United States and others to go further to help defeat Russia.
NATO's outgoing secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg of Norway, acknowledged the question marks, after Trump's allies in the US Congress forced a delay of months in approving new weapons for Ukraine.
"Ukraine has shown remarkable courage and NATO allies have provided unprecedented support. But let's be honest -- not even our support for Ukraine has been a given," Stoltenberg said.
"Remember -- the biggest cost and the greatest risk will be if Russia wins in Ukraine. We cannot let that happen."
Other leaders attending the summit include Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, one of Putin's closest partners in the West, who ahead of Washington went to Ukraine, Russia and China on a self-described peace mission criticized by Brussels and Washington.
Another Asian partner of the US, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, met Putin on the eve of the NATO summit and is not part of the Washington talks.
Leaders on Wednesday will formally convene the alliance's North Atlantic Council inside downtown Washington's convention center.
Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will later welcome their counterparts for gala dinners around the Washington area, which is in the throes of a searing heat wave.
One new NATO leader is British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who is visiting days after taking office in a landslide victory by his Labour Party.
He will meet both Biden and Zelensky and is expected to confirm Britain's strong support for Ukraine.
- Reassurances for Ukraine -
Ukraine has been seeking firm assurances that it will one day join NATO, which considers an attack on any member an attack on all.
Ukraine's membership enjoys wide backing from Baltic and Eastern European nations still haunted by decades under the Soviet yoke.
But Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz have led opposition, concerned that the alliance would effectively be entering war with nuclear-armed Russia as it occupies swathes of Ukraine.
Zelensky, who has achieved hero status in much of the West for his media-savvy defiance of Russia, voiced open annoyance at the last NATO summit in Lithuania at the failure to provide a clearer path to membership.
In Washington, the US is seeking to play down his expectations, speaking of creating a "bridge" to membership but making clear quick entry is not on the cards.
Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said negotiations were ongoing on the final language and that he was hopeful for a word such as "irreversible" to describe Ukraine's path to NATO.
Putin has repeatedly accused the West of antagonizing Russia by entertaining NATO membership for Ukraine, whose separate identity he has rejected.
Ukraine has also been clamoring for greater air defenses to protect cities being barraged by Russia.
Biden promised Monday an additional Patriot system, on top of two new systems being given by Germany and Romania and one which the Netherlands has said it is putting together with parts from other allies.
© 2024 AFP
9 Comments
Dr.Cajetan Coelho
Planet Earth and humankind are thirsting for peace. World leaders are trying their best to bend low to uplift the lowly, the poor, the hungry, the sick, the homeless, the refugees, the marginalized, the victims of exploitation, trafficking and injustices.
JJE
Hands across America again for Zelensky and yet another international cope conference designed to bolster egos in the face of reality. Look who's talking - the guy who put his foot in it at the debate, now hiding behind a teleprompter.
The night of July 8th was a disaster for NATO AD systems in Ukraine. The ground, sea and air launched integrated attack was enormous, effective and well thought out; they are attempting to coverup the losses and paper over it with a hysterical narrative which happens before every international conference of this nature.
Key point is to watch the actual geolocated videos of the strikes filmed by locals.
What is left over of Ukraine will never be allowed to join NATO. Moscow won't allow it.
PTownsend
Who knows what actually happened in this instance, but Russia has claimed it's able to precisely fire missiles, and when It's bombed hospitals in Ukraine, Syria and elsewhere denied responsibility saying the hospitals were hiding places for weapons, but never admitting it was Russia that invaded, fired the first shots, and armed Russian sympathizers living in Ukraine thereby up ramping up Russian military actions in Ukrainian territory. Russia's war crimes keep adding up, while civilians including children keep being slaughtered, on a children aside, is Putin going to return the Ukrainian children to their blood families in Ukraine, or does he expect to train them for his next wars?
TaiwanIsNotChina
Thankfully Moscow can't afford to have a say, but they will pretend like they did something.
Sh1mon M4sada
...same one that says Putin was a cuddly bear who doesn't know the true value of Russian energy.
Zaphod
In what universe? Ukraine can only do what US funding allows them to do. And what does "stop Putin" is supposed to mean anyway? The great debater Biden fails to clarify.
RichardPearce
In 2014, the White Bloc decided it wanted to control the grain fields of Ukraine and found extremists willing to overthrow democracy who would give them that control in exchange for 'legitimacy'.
The problem was that while these extremists could seize and rule the capital and the western part of territory, the bulk of the grain fields (and industry) was in the east, that rejected the coup, and resisted the extremists successfully, resulting in a peace deal that gave the east limited independence and self rule.
But that wasn't acceptable to the war hawks of the White Bloc (who were losing economic, industrial, and technological dominance) or the extremists who were finding that the funds the territory they controlled wouldn't be enough to keep them in control for long, and bye bye peace deal.
But the second attempt to seize control over the grain fields failed, partly because there were a lot of people in the military units the extremists had inherited who didn't want to kill Ukrainians for the extremists, and a lot of Ukrainians who didn't like the extremists enough that they'd fight against them, resulting in a new peace deal that gave the east more independence and self rule.
Of course, that didn't sit well with the extremists and war hawks, who concentrated on building up stockpiles of weapons and people who were willing to use them until they decided the time had come to bid bye bye to the peace deal, again, and failed, again, resulting in another new peace deal that gave the east effective autonomy.
Another cycle of build up convinced the extremists and the War Hawks they could seize control over the east, and it is possible that they might have (though in a rather pyrrhic fashion) but Russia objected to this in escalating terms diplomatically that were ignored until it intervened directly.
Which leads to the present, where the extremists and war hawks refuse to accept a peace deal that puts the grain fields completely out of their reach for the foreseeable future and have to pretend that there is still a way to seize control, while the cost of trying continues to escalate, while the chances of even a pyrrhric victory becomes ever more remote.
kohakuebisu
Its paywalled and I can't read the story, this popped up on my Twitter. The Telegraph is as Establishment as they come and they are saying NATO does not want Ukraine anyway. If this is a merely excuse for a different real reason, whoever gave this excuse was still happy to press the big button marked "publically humiliate Zelensky".
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/07/02/ukraine-to-be-told-it-is-too-corrupt-to-join-nato/
Pukey2
Strange how Russia's economy has been growing so much compared to the west ever since they were sanctioned. As the Chinese say, please sanction our football team.